61 comments
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1)easier logistics, dealing with 1 is always better than with 4.2)More mature 3) With UAE not buying it, analysis by PAF and in turn by china is unlikely- relief :p4) Mirage's fine performance in Kargils is not lost? 5) 5 mil per plane sounds a lot to me.6)Naval version also flying- deal swetner.7 Aligned with mirage upgrade- a sense of direction.

Rafale the best choise. It did far better than eurofighter typhoon in libiyan war. France always supported india even when we did nuclear test. France promise full TOT. great news for building LCA, AMCA, ENGINES, RADARS etc etc. Rafale is true omni role jet fighter and it can also take off from aircraft carriers. Great news.

Just close the deal and sign on the dotted line already! BTW, we should ensure we go for a customized IAF-centric Rafale variant (like we did with the MKI Flanker) instead of the ones currently being operated by the French. An AESA radar is a must, for example, and there are several other opportunities for customization and improvement.

Its a good decision I believe. I agree with Prashant. The requirement of today is to have one good fighter that will add capability to IAF and clear any misadventure illusions from enemies mind.

I saw few ppl saying its a luxury with many ppl living below the poverty lane...but in reality if you compare it to the funds that are supposed to be allocated to the human and infra development are more than in fact many folds.

I think this is the best deal for India given today's geo-political conditions. Rafale is wholly French and as such we won't have to depend upon USA or its partner nations like UK for sensitive tech. Moreover, IAF has had a great experience operating Mirage fighters. I think, we have even engaged Snecma, in advisory role, for ironing out issues pertaining to Kaveri engine...

Great News! It also made complete sense for the Indian Air Force to choose the Rafale, which have traditionally had French aircraft in their inventory. Plus interoperability is a major factor as is the fact that the Rafale Naval is not very different from the Air Force version. Just the arrestor hook and landing so if the Navy were also to go in for the Rafale, it would become cost effective for both forces. Good thinking by the IAF!!

The GOI and MOD seem to be hell-bent on getting screwed left, right and centre by the French. 1. The Scorpene deal is languishing with the French not abiding by the TOT agreeement, saying the Yindoos are not yet able to master the technology needed for the production of the submarine. The subs are way behind schedule.2. The French screwed us royally in the upgrade of the Mirage fighters. The money spent on the aging Mirage aircrafts could have been used to buy new fighters or unilised in R&D or on the LCA fighters.3. With the choice of Fafale as the 126 fighter winner, the French have the upper hand in squeezing as much from us. They have not yet stated fully in any media that they are willing to transfer cutting-edge technology for the engines for the Rafale. Neither have they indicated they are willing to tot for the Aesa radar within a stipulated time frame.The initial price may be low but what is stopping the French from escalating the price once they have our cojones in their hands. They are no better than the Russians.Hope this deal does not become another Gorshkov or Scorpeane.

Three times i voted on the money thanks to your blog. Two times consecutively for Rafale when junta were shifting their loyalties from Rafale to EF in the second vote.And, third time on the army chief issue where I voted that he should sue the Govt.

Tejas with twin engine and delta wing and little bigger in size can become same as raffle because both are from same class design (delta wing)Tejas can definitely improve from euro fighter and raffle jet (only advantage goes in favor of tejas is its low signature on radar that is not present in Raffle or on Eurofighter i thinkbut Tejas can become more mature and powerful if its having twin engine (two is better than one)

Its good choice for India. For Euro fighter many people are worried for US connection. But do not forget US delivered 130 plans with in time frame with out any issue. I think india should increase their relationship with US.

"Merci l'Inde"....After more than two decades of trying, France apparently has finally found its first foreign customer in IAF for its Rafale fighter jets. The Netherlands turned it down in 2001, South Korea the next year. Singapore said no in 2005 and Morocco in 2007. Brazil appeared ready to sign a deal two years ago but it never came through, and the United Arab Emirates turned down an offer last year, as did Switzerland....Anyways "Vive-la-France".Typhoon was a much better a/c, more potent fighter. Even it looks much better. I'm shell-shocked at this decision.... :(

I would prefer the most stealthy variant, preferably with conformal weapons bays like F-15 silent eagle to carry a payload like JSF. Furthermore, a common engine(Kaveri-snecma hybrid) with LCA Mk2/AMCA with higher thrust would be the icing on the cake. Finally - It should be upgraded to be able to face J20 in terms of frontal RCS/sensors etc with Meteor AAM. The French are costly, should be made to do sufficient tech transfer to drive down costs as much as possible and retain independence to mount any weapons of our choice and do tweaking to suit our missions.

Third world country trying hard to be military power. PAF can be defeated with Sukhois and PLAAF can not be contained by India with whatever. Then why waste billions? Wait 2-3 years and have LCA and upgraded MIG29, mirage and su30

HAL will learn little from any ToT. What did they learn from assembling hundreds of Migs, Sukhois and Hawks? They cant even make LCA after 25 years in incubation. Forget fighters, they can't even make trainers!OFB sat on designs of Bofors guns for 23 years without even trying to make a single gun out of it. What ToT would help losers like these?I see this purchase as a sheer waste of money. $25billion can be used in R&D, infrastructure, giving our soldiers and police bulletproof vests and NVG, better rifles and what not.This is relatively a peace period for sub-continent. There is no urgency to buy such expensive and soon to be outdated, non-stealth combat airplanes. Indian logic is flawed to say the least. How can a third world country be so shameless in spending taxpayers' money to become the largest importers of weapons in the world?

Each time the Eurofighter has beencompeting against the Rafale, it’s thelatter who have lead. Even if this wasnever a guarantee of success in theend for the french aircraft. Indiaconfirms the predominance of theRafale against the Eurofighter.Facing the Rafale, the Eurofighter (BAESystems, EADS and Finmeccanica) justcan’t do it … because, despite its fewexport success (Austria, Saudi Arabia…), this fighter has always beenleaded by the french aircraftmanufactured by Dassault Aviation inall the competitions in which theyboth participated. This gives an insightto the victory of the Rafale, selected byNew Delhi to enter into exclusivenegotiations.It was the case in the Netherlands inearly 2002 when the Dutch air forceevaluated the aircrafts in competition(85 fighters). The F-35 Lockheed Martinwas slightly ahead of the Rafale (6. 97against 6.95) . However, theEurofighter Typhoon dragged farbehind with a score of 5.83 . The sameyear, the aircraft manufactured by theEuropean consortium was eliminatedby South Korea at the pre-selectionphase (short list) as part of the tenderKF-X for the purchase of 40 fighteraircraft . The South Korea Air Forceranked Rafale first among the threeaircraft evaluated (F-15E Boeing,Eurofighter) after technical andfinancial evaluations and offsets. Inthe end, Boeing had won thecompetition on purely political criteria.New duel, this time in the skies ofSingapore in 2005. Again, the Ministryof Defence of the city-state, whichwants to buy 20 fighter as part of theNFRP tender eliminates the Europeanaircraft. The Rafale in the final facesagain the Boeing F-15 E. The U. S. offerwon in September 2005 on politicalconsiderations. The release ofDassault Aviation is also clear: “the USweight gives again due to the Chineseproverb: Bamboo always leans towardthe side that push stronger.” DassaultAviation also lost due to the weakdollar this year.New cold shower for the Eurofighter,October 1, 2008 in Brazil, which iseliminated from the “F-X 2″competition while the Rafale, theGripen NG (Saab) and the F-18 E / FSuper Hornet (Boeing) are shortlisted.In the end, the Brazilians enter intoexclusive negotiations with DassaultAviation, but dramatic turn of events ,in December 2010, Brazilian PresidentLuiz Inacio Lula da Silva said during aTV interview, he will not decide beforethe end of his term on January 1 forthe purchase of 36 fighter planes, anorder estimated at between 4 and 7billion.The last battle lost by the Eurofighteragainst the Rafale is recent. It was inSwitzerland in 2011, where the Rafaleis also topped the evaluations. But itis the Gripen NG[. ..] which won.

deceptive that they may be the french have a minimum respect for India unlike UK whose PM insulted India along with Jeremy Clarkson on top gear recently. so screwing them over is an added bonus to choosing this deal. if our baboos stop their corruption any fighter deal is profitable. also, typhoon is designed to be more air superiority fighter than multi-role and doesn't appear to have electronic counter measures.

Thx Alot indian's peoples, First , to not take serious the disinformation of EFt lobbyists around the world regarding EFT air power 5th Gen illusion's lies!

in each foreign competitions and evaluations, rafale outperformed the EFT in Air air and air to ground, this being confirmed by all joint air nato tlp between UK and French air force for years!

You'll get a unique plateform to defend you amazing nation, even more, france being the leader in europe in aeronautics activities and R&D, Space, ELINT, nuclear reschearch etc.. it will make easier ways to share involvments into sensitive technologies researches , and as full partners now, because we need to learn as much from you as the versus !

IAF is mighty pleased with its Mirage 2000s based at Gwalior. Secondly, the Rafale has always outperformed the Typhoon in every major competition in which they have taken part till date. Moreover it is already fully multirole with an AESA radar to be integrated from next year onwards. It wont be a logistics nightmare as the other aircraft. The French Defense policy doesnt allow them to keep more than 300 Fighter jets in its inventory( max. 240 for the Airforce and 60 for the Navy) and it is destined to replace the Mirage 2000s also.India would have to deal with just one country ie. France instead of four Nation EC.The French have already promised full ToT with out any terms and conditions. Rafale performed exceedingly well in varied climatic conditions in India and also completed all the missions successfully in Libya and Afghanistan. It is a good decision.More nations might follow suit and buy the Dassault Rafale.

Frankly this was a second best choice. The obvious choice would have been to go for the F-35. What we need is the ability to do precision ground strikes against Pakistan and only a stealth aircraft like the F-35 would have given us that capability. None of the aircraft including the Rafale will give us the ability to do a close to zero risk free ground strike against Pakistan without losing aircraft to air defences.

Having said that the Rafale would have been my pick out of all the bidders ie SH, F-16, Eurofighter for all the reasons mentioned by "Prashant" in his first post.

As the poll indicates sign the damn deal and please make sure you involve the private industry in the offsets and keep HAL as far away as possible!!

any hanky phanky by either side i.e indian politician or UK or FRAnce can proove dangerous for iaf.i am keeping my finger crossed.....u all keep urs ....if anything shitty happens here like 2g ....forgot about rafale iaf will be forced to repair old migs lying outside iaf feilds as showpeice

oh no, please no "F-35 is the best choice" rant ! Was very surprised to hear the odd arguments put forth by Col. Shukla. We want more platforms now. A bird in hand is worth two in the sanction prone bush.

People notice the US support for Pak, but no one complains about the French support to Pakistan. They sell them planes and subs, and are currently building subs for Pak. Why this double standard? By the way we are paying an arm and a leg to upgrade those old mirages, I am sure when Rafale needs updgrage, the price will be almost like paying for them all over again. Abort! Abort!.... which I think is a likely scenario as the price tag is just massive and the elections are near.

BIG MISTAKE!Fact 1) The Rafale is cheaper than the Eurofighter yet the only country on the face of the earth that has bought it is India - you poor people. Do you think everyone else is wrong and only you are right?

FACT 2) The Rafale did not outperform the Eurofighter in Iran - The Americans think otherwise and they have no reason to support EF.

FACT 3) You have bought it from a country that was about to shut down the factories and was so desperate they are virtually giving it away.Come on India, you are blinded by your loyalty to France because they supported your nuclear programme and sold you some Mirages.

It could be possible that Rafale is the best choice, much better than F-35, something which even i believe.

There are two areas where F-35 is better than Rafale. Stealth and Avionics, which we all know. I read one aussie article mentioning that F-35 does not have all aspect stealth. It is effective in countering radars which operate in X-band of Radio Frequencies. It also mentions that with the development of longer (particulary L-band) wavelenth radars, by russia and even china, F-35 stealth could as well be defeated. The only thing is, these radars are not used as much as X-band radars currently because of technical difficulty (pardon me if i am wrong). Having said that, such radars do exist.The resolution might take a hit with longer wavelength radars, but that matters i believe for air-to-ground operations. What i am trying to say is, F-35 may or may not have an all aspect stealth when it comes to all the radio frequency bands used commonly,( or even uncommonly) in radars. We all know, once F-35 stealth is defeated, rafale clearly has an upper hand as it is more manoevarable, longer range, carries more payload etc.

Go through this article, it is a good read even if it is not representing reality.

The F35 don t come before 10-15 year to be mature and operational, it cant fly without its test area, it had strutural problem, bugs, overheat, the F35B kill jsf because blowing cost and delay. The performance is near F16 or F18. the passiv stealth technologie go obsolete in 10 year, because new genration radar intelligence, sensible, networked for jet fighter or ground-air missile. The future is active stealth, electronic way for rafale and may be a plasma stealth partial ot entry engine it's depend from new rafale NG demosntrator for increase stealth features, plasma stealth for T50 or J20. Russian are good advance on it, but the french onera organisation to, in next 5 year it would be used for neuron or may be new version rafale.

This is a bad deal on all fronts. The Eurofihter was technologically slightly superior, with even more room for growth, EADS would have given trading links with the UK, Germany, Italy and Spain, rather than just unrelible old France. There is a huge Indian community in the UK and Germany, with important political links and those communities would have been very useful.

It is too early to celebrate the outcome of the MMRCA choice. By our (Indian) standards if the deal fructifies in the forseeable future (say in about a decade) the IAF and India can be as very fortuanate.

There is one thing very common in the Indian psyche and that is being lackadaisical and as indolent as possible until someone with some sense of punctuality and competence wields the big stick. That is not forthcoming from the UPA govt. or with St. Anthony.

The babooos will as it is in their nature push the paperwork as slowly as possible so as to be recognized his/her position which calls for some underhand monetary transfer for files to be processed and pushed in the right direction.

We don't need EADS or the US to throw any spanner in the works to bring it to a halt. It takes only one aggrieved, vested interest party to file a complaint against the deal citing some hancky-pancky which is enough to delay the deal for another 20 years just like what happened in the Bofors scandal.

Unless and until the GOI and MOD fast-tracks the deal, we might as well relax and save our time and energy championing one or the other aircraft.

This is BLOODY hypocritcal. Reminds me of what happened after John Kennedy was assasinated. You see, John Kennedy was elected by a very slim margin, probably the lowest in U.S. history at the time. However, when he died,a survey asked how many voted for him, and 80% said yes!

After your Live Fist survey a few months ago where the vast majority wanted the Eurofighter, the results of this survey show the weakness of human character in India!

F-35 F-35 F-35 F-35 F-35 F-35 F-35 there are at least 3 to 5 things that F it first two expensive 2 requires special maintainence 3 single engine 4 limited Stealth not in same leage as the F22 or the PAKFA 5 American sanctions one more still being manufactured

All this is fine, good, in the short term. But for God's sake, can someone jumpstart the indigenisation programme? It is absolutely vital that India acquires some skills in weapons-building, like China is doing, to survive militarily in the long run. Issues of quality,etc, can be taken care of, if there is a long-term commitment to indigenous defence production.

Dear Sudheendhra - Thanks for your post and the informative link. Just curious what would your choice be?

My opinion is derived from the Libyan campaign where the european air forces clearly demonstrated limited capability in SEAD and actually needed USAF escorts.

I believe tha the Rafale is a good MMRCA but frankly the new trends so to speak are Stealth, AESA radar (not on paper) and UAVs. I believe this is where $10-12B needs to be spent.

Would we be confident to launch a punitive ground strike against Pakistan with the rafales? Would the risk perception change? Would that be different if we had bought the F-35s. My answers would be no, no and yes.

It is always a pleasure to run into somebody informed like you. thanks again

Thanks for your polite and informative reply. Rafale definitely is not as stealthier than F-35. I won't deny this. My basic argument against F-35 stems from these facts

* it is not as operational as Rafale* it has a huge order book (don't know when would india get this - if at all if it goes for it)* US won't give as much as france is willing to give...I read somewhere, "Buy US aircraft, and get US restrictions for Free"..

In one line if i have to say "It is better to go with something which is on hand rather than on something which hiding behind the bush (that too which comes with restrictions)".

As far as AESA radar of Rafale goes, i read in some article that the french are constantly in touch with IAF on the current status of AESA radar. I believe it must be in a pretty advanced stage.

For SEAD operations, there is SPECTRA (atleast in the internet community it is famous) and french have AASM (don't whether this comes with the MMRCA package).

If IAF really wants F-35, it should evaluate it just like it did for all aircrafts in MMRCA (including it's proclaimed stealth)..and then take a decision.

Moreover, Rafale would be fitted with enhanced M88-4E engines. Atleast one I know has already been fitted and flight tested. This MIGHT even make it to fly as high as the Typhoon.

Perhaps, for any more orders beyond 126 aircrafts, F-35 should be considered, but these 126 aircrafts should be rafale in my opinion. And That too if it proves stealthier, atleast against radars carried by opponents fighter aircrafts. Ground based radars and even AWACS operating in a wide spectrum, might still defeat F-35's stealth(am not confident on this).

I congratulate the team for selecting the right fighter jet. Rafale is definitely better than over hyped Typhoon. The Libyan operation and the Swiss evaluation report definitely proves the performances of the Rafale. I hope they can seal the deal quickly by this year and in future buy more Rafale.

Well done and congratulations for selecting the right fighter jet. Rafale is the best, much better than the over hyped Typhoon. Its been confirmed in recent operation in Libya and in the Swiss report. Now I just hope that the deal is signed quickly and we can get the jet soon.